I understand what you are saying. This person is talking about a consecration (as a conscious act) to Mary… such as the Louis de Montfort act of consecration or something like that. I do not believe that is essential to salvation. I agree that the Church’s devotion to Mary is an essential part of Christian worship particularly in light of the dogmatic teaching of Mary’s Immaculate Conception and Assumption into heaven. We must believe these things to be true as the Church has proclaimed them. Furthermore, the Church’s requirement for particular Marian feast days as holy days of obligation would certainly show that we should honor and love her. That being said, there are no requirements, that I am aware of, to consecrate ourselves to Mary in order to be saved.
My point is this: compare this “freedom” to consecrate or not to consecrate oneself to Mary, with the “freedom” to believe or not to believe in the Catholic Church. Can non-Catholics be saved? Answer: yes. Consider comparing this teaching with the question at hand concerning Mary:
“Outside the Church there is no salvation”
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.
Do you see what I am pointing out? The Catholic Church is necessary for salvation BUT “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.”
Marian devotion is intrinsic to, essential to Christian worship of God BUT: a Christian can be saved not only with no
conscious Marian devotion, but with no conscious awareness of his/her connection to or place in the Catholic Church. A person can “be asleep” so to speak, unaware concerning the fullness of life in Christ - fullness in Him that includes full participation as a Catholic, and with full and vital relationship with Mary who is mother in Christ to all Christians - yet still attain life in the Kingdom.
Salvation comes to the world only through Christ the Head: "…all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body. De Montfort points out that God sent His saving Son (through the Church) through Mary, and thus consciously she is the fastest, easiest and most sure way to reach Him.
Protestants sometimes challenge me with the question, “If being a Catholic is not necessary for me to be saved (as the Catholic Church teaches!), then why are you (that is, why am I) trying to evangelize them?” The answer is, God wants us to have
all that Christ died to give us!
God desires the full maturity of our life in the Son - with “full, conscious and active participation” in the worship enabled in Him, worship in “spirit and truth.” Marian devotion “is intrinsic to” such worship. It is important for us, I conclude, to point all seekers to the fullness of what they seek. Yes, they are free to do what they want. But learning what God wants it is better to choose, or at least to grow toward, what God wants!
